Bill Gates ditches Windows Phone for Android

Microsoft pulled support for Windows phones earlier this summer, but you know the one-time iPhone and Android competitor is truly dead when Microsoft's founder admits on TV that he's now using Android.

"The phone that I have, recently, I actually did switch to an Android phone with a lot of Microsoft software," Bill Gates told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. Watch the interview clip below.

Bill Gates talks about his relationship with Steve Jobs and his smartphone of choice. Full interview on Fox News at 10pm ET.

Microsoft's software has had a long history on mobile devices, starting with Windows CE on handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996, before morphing into Windows Mobile in 2,000. Feeling enormous pressure from Apple's drastically simpler iOS (launched in 2007) and Google's upstart Android operating system (2008), Microsoft rebranded to Windows Phone in 2010.

It was the beginning of the end for Microsoft's mobile OS, which couldn't simplify its software or draw enough app developers fast enough to win back buyers from Apple and Google. Buying Nokia's mobile arm and taking over the Lumia name failed to give Windows Phone the shot in the arm it needed. It's now been two years since Microsoft's last Windows release for phones (Windows 10 mobile debuted on the Lumia 950).

While the stray Windows device may occasionally trickle out, Gates' new allegiance may as well stick a fork in Windows Phone, because man, it's done.